A 20th century lady- The life and times of May, 1903 -1994
When my mother was born in 1903, hers was a world of Edwardian families: great wealth, great poverty, where the sun never set on the British Empire. The horse and carriage ruled the streets, and well-brought up young ladies were chaperoned and practised extreme modesty in dress and language. In 1994 when she died, how changed the world was from that time. Perhaps as never before had changes been so swift; in thoughts, day-to- day living and communication. She, who was an early Edwardian, saw her youngest grandson arrive at London’s Heathrow on Concorde. These immense changes that she experienced fascinated me, and this book is a look back in time with her life weaving a thread through the decades.
Caroline Mary Powell (known most of her life as May) was born on January 6th, 1903 in Blackwood, Rock Bedwelty in South Wales. Her parents were David John and Maria Jane Powell. She was the 5th of 7 children, (William John, Annie Elizabeth, Celia Maud, Thomas Henry, my mother, Gladys Irene and Morgan). Later the household expanded with the addition of two grandchildren, (Nia and David) sons of her sister Annie Elizabeth and husband. Her parents were from the Welsh Valleys and moved to Treharris where her father worked as a miner in the Treharris Colliery. Later he owned a china and glass shop in the town. Her mother worked at the Edwardsville School. Treharris was typical of the small Welsh towns that sprang up in the mid-to-late 19th century when speculators flocked to the Welsh valleys and sunk mines. In 1897, a Treharris resident, William Lewis, was quoted as saying during the Merthyr Tydfil Incorporation Inquiry that “the population around 1877 was around 200-300, and the present 1897 population was about 7,000”. Treharris is somewhat unusual as it was founded by a Quaker from Fordingbridge in Dorset, England, a man called William Harris, who sunk the Deep Navigation Colliery in 1872. The village was originally called --- but then renamed for William Harris ( Tre being Welsh for town.) As the town was being built up, the streets were named after Quakers, the first being Fox Street, others being Penn, Fell, Webster, Evan and Pritchard. (Pritchard may have been named after a Col. Pritchard, Lord Lieutenant who owned nearby Llancaiach Farm in the 17th century and was a royalist. When King Charles 1 was on his way to Brecon, he stopped at the farm for lunch).
Not far from Treharris was the village of Quakers’ Yard, originally named Rhydygrig (Heather Ford). Before the mines came the area attracted millers, weavers, canal workers, bargees, lock-keepers, farm-workers and smiths. Quakers’ Yard was so named as a lady gave land for the burial of Quakers. In the 17th century a charter was given stating a Fair was to be held there every year at Whitsun-tide. People came from miles away, especially with the advent of the railway line. *There were rides, amusements, sideshows and stalls stretching for many hundreds of yards selling homemade products and anything else you would care to think of.
In 1841 the Taff Railway line between Cardiff and Merthyr was opened and a station called Quakers’ Yard was built just below Edwardsville which is at the bottom of Treharris. The town was named after the Chairman of the Housing Purchasing Society and is where the Beechgrove Cemetery and Chapel are, where my grandparents, David and Maria and my Uncle Tom are buried. The Chapel built in 1888 was damaged by a tornado which went through Treharris on October 27, 1913 and was rebuilt in 1914. Burial services are no longer held there. The tornado
In Treharris there was a Public Hall and Institute built in 1892 at a cost of L3,300. The building contained a gallery, stage, dressing rooms, cloakrooms, a library, a reading room, recreation and committee rooms, lavatory and caretaker’s apartments. The Library and reading room were supported by contributions deducted from the workingmens’ wages every 2 weeks. In 1909 a Free Library and Reading rooms were built with funds given by Andrew Carnegie at a cost of L2500.
There were several musical organizations, the Treharris Brass Band, the Operatic and Choral Societies, The Tabernacle Welsh Congregational Chapel Orchestra. During the time my mother was at the Old Vic in London, she returned to Treharris in ______ to take the lead in “The Mikado” at the Palace which was put on by the Treharris Operatic Society and accompanied by the Welsh Tabernacle Orchestra. This was a big day for Treharris, banners went up with “May Powell returns to sing in the Mikado” and such.
My mother’s childhood was mostly typical of that time in that area. They lived at 12 Pleasant View (known as The Lane). The family did not have much money, but all in the village shared what they had and looked out for one other. If the children went blackberry picking on the mountains, that meant pies for several families. Couples with no children or with small families often helped out larger families by providing meals and even board and lodging. Mrs Eva Jones (nee Locke) remembers going down the lane to visit. My grandmother was a kindly person and often invited Eva, who had lost her mother at age 4, to share in the family’s outings (one in particular was to Weston).What was different about the family ( although not unusual in Wales) was that the children sang very well. They would go around at Christmas -time singing carols and be in great demand. Their music teacher was Fred Evans, who was organist and choirmaster at St. Mathias, built in 1896 at a cost of L3,500. My mother, her sister Irene and brother Tom would compete at eisteddfords and win medals, prizes and certificates for their singing. The children attended Edwardsville School for Infants, then the Treharris School. Most children ended their formal education at age 14, then the girls went into service or other work and the boys to the mines. My mother was fortunate in that she went to work for the local doctor, Dr. Leigh, and attracted the attention of his daughter, Mabel Leigh Martin by her beautiful singing voice. Mabel arranged for my mother to go to Birmingham to study with a Dr. Silver, and live with his family. Dr. Alfred Silver was a renowned musician and became her coach and mentor. The middle-class household consisted of Dr. and Mrs Silver and their two sons, Bassett and Lindsay. Theirs was a strict household, but not much was mentioned of Mrs. Silver, although she looks pleasant in a family photograph of 1918. They lived a conventional, proper life and this upbringing influenced my mother throughout her life. She was very aware of the class distinctions that were part of life in England. Good manners were an essential part of daily life and clearly later in her life, the changes in lifestyles distressed her. She was given an education suitable for a young middle-class girl. Naturally there was heavy emphasis on the music-training. Mum always spoke with admiration of Dr. Silver and his teaching. She must have studied well as there are medals from competitions in the Birmingham area. She did not develop however, a love of books or reading, and although enjoyed television programs, could not sit through a movie. Mum was definitely a “people” person and liked excitement in her life. As her sister Irene’s son, Stuart Burrows says” she could charm the robin off a starch box”. Perhaps that is why she turned her back on her staid background with all its security and ran off to London in her teens. I can’t help but think that Dr. Silver must have been horrified, and perhaps Mrs. Silver felt she was ungrateful, but that is what happened.
So in 1921 at the age of 18 my mother started her grown-up life. There was a period of study in Brussels, then back to London where she became one of the youngest singers at the Old Vic Theatre. She started in the opera chorus and later went on to sing some solo roles. Lillian Baylis was the general manager, having inherited the theatre from her aunt and god-mother, Emma Cons. Lilian ruled the theatre and all who were associated with it, with an iron hand and not clad in a velvet glove either. She watched over her actors, actresses, singers and dancers with a keen eye, often from a box draped with black curtains, so one was not sure whether she was there observing or not. The period of Lilian Baylis’s tenure was a tremendously exciting one, and my mother reveled in it. The theatre produced plays with the likes of John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, ballets with Ninette de Valois and of course the opera, with Edith Coates, Joan Cross and many others. The young were very carefully supervised, my mother lived in a hostel run by the Girls’ Friendly Society, and some of her friendships made there lasted a lifetime. In particular was Dora Heycock, who went on to lead a very respectable middle-class spinsterhood and followed my mother’s career and life with great interest.
After several years at the Old Vic, the strain began to tell on my mother (remember, she had started her operatic career at a very tender age). She kept getting tonsillitis so Lilian Baylis sent her off for a holiday to South Africa where she, Lilian, had connections. So began a sea voyage to South Africa on the Union Castle Line, the first of many such voyages. That was a quite an era with those ocean-going liners, they were the link between “home” and the colonies. To so many the ships were the last vestiges of familiar life as at “home”or represented a haven after all the rigours of colonial living. That is another fascinating topic to research. I too, have fond memories of those voyages, as that was the only way to travel from South Africa to “home” or vice-versa, before the days of air travel. Overland travel was only for those such as Richard Burton, Dr. Livingstone and Stanley. For an incredibly cheap fare one got two weeks full board, fun and games, (especially crossing the Equator) and a great social life. It was a wonderful holiday, a complete escape from it all. Of course, my mother always had a wonderful time, dining at the Captain’s table, singing in the soirees, and making fancy-dress costumes for the parties at which she no doubt flirted with the gentlemen. This first voyage for her was momentous in many ways, for it not only was something new and exciting, it was to change the whole course of her life.
Lilian Baylis’s introductions to Capetown society lead to lifelong friendships and eventually marriage. Families like the Cloetes and others welcomed this young Welsh opera singer from the Old Vic. She was wined, dined and feted and from photographs carefully compiled in an album by the faithful Dora, we have a record of my mother enjoying a very happy holiday. Of course, soon comes along a handsome young man, Arthur Kilwarden Wolfe, known always as Macgregor. He was a chartered accountant and came from an old Cape family who had originally settled there in 1684. The Wolfe family had Scottish origins, and their home “Fournaughts” was a landmark in Capetown. Wolfe Street is named after them.
Macgregor had been educated at Bishop’s, a Church of England public school and was organist of_________ a position he held for 40 years. Music was a passion they both shared, and it was only natural that he would accompany her in church services and recitals. Mum was dizzy with all excitement and attention the young man was giving her. She was leading a hectic social life (didn”t I mention she was a “People” person?), and Capetown was a delight after London’s foggy winters. So in 1927 May and Macgregor were married. She fitted easily into the social life of Capetown Society, and her life centered around her husband, her music and later her children. Her eldest daughter, Elizabeth Kilwarden Wolfe was born on July 31, 1928, followed by John Kilwarden Wolfe on November 22, 1931. The family lived in Kenilworth and life became a familiar routine with the children’s school days (Elizabeth was at Herschel’s, John at Bishop’s), social events and of course music and church. Macgregor was also a very keen Boy Scout leader and went to the camp at______every summer holiday after Christmas. (In South Africa, the seasons are reversed, winter is in July, August). The routine was interrupted by trips to England, once in 1930 when my mother took Elizabeth, the second when she and Macgregor went without the children in 1939, just before World War II broke out. That trip, also carefully documented by Dora, who travelled with them quite a bit, took them 3,000 miles around England, Scotland and Wales. They took their car with them on the boat from South Africa for the princely sum of ______. Tragically, 1939 marked the death of her beloved brother Tom, who was killed on May 13, in a terrible mining accident in Treharris. She gave a Bible to St. Mathias in his memory. It was a poignant moment for me when visiting the church, to be shown that Bible. Mum did not talk about her family very much to us children, although I knew of Uncle Tom and that he had been killed, but I did not know about the Bible until I started researching for this book.
